Dennis B., Waco, TXBy way of introduction, I am a licensed physician in several states and a have been a professor at several medical schools. I believe this allows me to adequately evaluate Dr. Shahinianís credentials as a physician.

A few years ago, my son Ethan was in a life-threatening automobile accident. He was critically injured including the cleavage of his hard palate with loss of multiple teeth from his mandible as well as his maxilla, fractures of his nasal bones, extensive fragmentation of his maxilla into numerous small pieces, fracture of his right zygoma, and fractures of various right orbital bones endangering his vision in that eye. The team of surgeons caring for him outlined a treatment plan involving multiple corrective surgical procedures, to take place over a series of months. They were pessimistic, even then, about the outcomes, functional as well as cosmetic.

A friend and academic colleague of mine recommended that I contact Dr. Shahinian. Dr. Shahinian told us that he could correct my sonís problems with a single surgical procedure. My son agreed, and Dr. Shahinian performed the surgery within approximately 36 hours. I mention the time frame here because the initial surgical team had recommended waiting for a week or more before they would attempt their first corrective procedure.

Frankly, in a 10-hour surgical procedure, Dr. Shahinian performed a technical miracle. His skill reconstructing my sonís skull and face was nothing short of astonishing. All of the osseous injuries were repaired. My son now has a few small scars on his chin as a result of his collision with the windshield. None of the incisions made by Dr. Shahinian are visible, which is no surprise since none of these were made on the exterior. Cosmetically, Ethanís face appears precisely as it did prior to the accident.

It is absolutely no exaggeration to say that Dr. Shahinian saved my sonís life. I do not necessarily mean that he literally saved his life, although maybe that too given the extent of Ethanís injuries. Rather, I mean that he saved the productive life of a young adult who may have been doomed to suffer either the significant consequences of a less expert repair or the psychosocial consequences of being permanently deformed.

In nearly forty years of medical practice at three of the Nationís best medical schools, I have had the honor to work with some of this Countryís best physicians, both in academic and in private medical practice. Dr. Shahinian is among these individuals. I have recommended him repeatedly to colleagues. His technical skills are precisely in line with the progression of medical and surgical practices as I have seen them during my career, an inexorable progression toward less invasive, less traumatic approaches that lead not only to minimal subsequent morbidity but also to improved functional outcomes. His approaches to pituitary surgery are surely consistent with recognized progress in his field and related examples are also found in the progress in many aspects of invasive radiology.